BERLIN — It’s the end of an era at Hugo Boss. Permira, the German group’s largest shareholder, is placing its remaining 12 percent stake in an accelerated bookbinding process.
Through its majority-owned company Red & Black S.A., Permira is placing 8.4 million shares with institutional investors. Industry sources estimated the holding is worth about 1 billion euros, with the asking price reportedly falling between 112.50 and 113 euros. Boss shares closed Monday at 118.60 euros.
The move increases the free float of the company to 64.1 million shares, or 91 percent of the share capital.
Permira has been consistently shaving its stake in Boss over the last two years, and this final move was expected. Observers said Permira’s exit could net the private equity group about twice its initial investment in the German fashion giant.
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Boss noted that in future, entities belonging to the Marzotto family would hold a 7 percent stake in the company.
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The Marzotto family has long had ties to Boss. When the family sold the Valentino Fashion Group, which then held an estimated 51 percent holding in Boss to Permira in 2007, it became a minority shareholder in one of the Boss group’s holding companies.
Two Marzotto family members are on the company’s supervisory board since 2010. Hugo Boss noted the remaining 2 percent of share capital would be held by the company.
Boss chief executive officer Claus-Dietrich Lahrs called the partnership between Hugo Boss and Permira “a very successful one. But the success story of Hugo Boss is far from over.”
Since 2007, Boss has grown sales by almost 1 billion euros to 2.57 billion euros, or $3.42 billion in 2014, with earnings more than doubling.
In the group’s 2015 forecast, which it released during its annual financial press conference last week, Boss let go of its strategic and long held 3 billion euro sales target for 2015. The group is expecting midsingle-digit gains in currency-adjusted group sales, which would fall significantly short of the 3 billion euro mark.